Banda Macho!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Promises To Deliver

It's official! Promises To Deliver, our first proper album, is ready to go! The record will be available on LP and CD, and is a three-label release split between ADD Records (who have done all our 7"s thus far), Eager Beaver Records (in Japan!), and Dead Broke Rekerds.

And I am very excited to announce that the third of the three labels, Dead Broke, has created your go-to page for streaming some of the songs from Promises To Deliver. Click the link to hear two new tracks: PROMISES TO DELIVER!

Now, here's a picture of us pretending to be a totem pole, at the Turf Club one night.

Allright, all that aside, let me say one or two more things about this album. Promises To Deliver is a nine-song, 36 minute record made up of songs I've written over the past few years - some newer than others. It's the first proper album I've made in a "Nato-and-the-band" context (as opposed to albums with the Used Kids, Modern Machines, etc.), but it shouldn't be treated as a solo project. Mike, Kyle, and Sam all had tremendous input and impact on the record, and we would have a very different (and I think inferior) final result if it had been made by session musicians who weren't truly part of the band. We already want to make another.

Counting Promises, I've now been a part of five full-length albums, as well as an 8-song 12" 45rpm (record fans can argue over whether 12" 45's count as albums or not, it's one of the classic rock'n'roll arguments). This one took longer to make than most, and cost a little more, too. I don't regret that - I've never played on a record that sounded so good! (Thank you, Jacques Wait.) I guess I wouldn't have minded some Hammond B-3 on the tracks, but the Blue Diamond Band didn't have a keyboard player when we wrote and recorded this, so we decided to stick with the instruments we actually play live. Feel free to add your own keyboard parts to the thing. We might one day, too.

If you count yourself in that population of folks who consider themselves fans of my music over the years, then I sincerely thank you for that, and I hope that you like our new album, and I hope to see you singing along with some new songs in some basement or bar out there, not too long from now. We'll be touring a lot this summer, and we're going to make it to just about every region of the USA. See you then! As always, stay free and be excellent to each other, and I'll see you in hell. Tacos,

The Blue Diamond Band

Grumpy's!

Thanks to everyone who came to our Grumpy's residency! We had a great time, and hope we get to do another one sometime not too long from now.

Followers

About The Blue Diamond Band

Nato moved to Minneapolis in the spring of 2010 with a plan: put together a band that would fully realize his musical vision, and have a ton of fun with it while playing shows and making music and roamin' around in vans. With Mike Cranberry, Bill Rohla, Luke De Beaumarchais, and Sam Beer, this goal has been achieved in spades (special thanks to original bassist Kyle Sando and original lead guitarist Ross Fellrath as well). In addition to many, many shows in the Twin Cities, Nato and the BDB travel all over the region, playing Coles tunes both new and old (and of course some choice covers!). Look out, they're right behind you!

About Nato Coles

Hi there. My name is Nato Coles. I play rock'n'roll with the Blue Diamond Band, straight outta Twin Cities USA. We have an album out called Promises To Deliver, and before you even read this, you should probably grab yourself a copy and take a listen - it'll do a better job of explaining what I'm about than this bio will! Get it from Dead Broke Rekerds, or ADD Records. You'll love it, I guarantee! Anyway, I play guitar and sing. I rock a mean harmonica. I can play piano semi-ok. And I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin but I don't live there anymore... Before the Blue Diamond Band, I played with the Used Kids, and we put out an album in August 2009 called Yeah No, which you can get from Salinas Records. The Used Kids were a punk rock and roll band from Brooklyn, NY. On the records and live, I play guitar and sing. The other members were Danny Z (bass), Kate Eldridge (guitar) and either C.J. Frederick, Amos Pitsch, or Mikey Benmont Ergs (drums). Mikey plays on all the records, though. The last Used Kids show was at Gainesville Fest 2009, on Halloween Night. Myself and Danny were in a band called the Modern Machines, back when we lived in Milwaukee (more on them in a bit). When I, and then later Danny, moved to Brooklyn, we had a couple more shows left to play as the Mo-Macs, and so Mikey played drums, and around that time, Kate joined as well on guitar. This became the Used Kids. We still played some old Modern Machines tunes, in the beginning, but gradually switched to playing just about only new stuff. If you liked what the Modern Machines were up to near the end, you'll probably dig this band. Hey, the guys from Hunchback seem to... The Radio Faces were a band consisting of myself on guitar, Jimbo on guitar, Mikey on bass, and Sully on drums. Everyone sang. This band was started 'cause I knew all these guys from others bands I'd met while roamin' around (the Ergs!, Bent Outta Shape, Ringers, etc.), and you should listen out those other bands if you haven't already. Although Jimbo has passed away (RIP), so we're not a band anymore, the Radio Faces album is out now on Art Of The Underground Records. As Jimbo put it, it's "high energy r'n'r," so you know it rules!.. For the first half of the "aughts," I played guitar and sang in a punk rock band called the Modern Machines. The other original members were Danny (same guy as Used Kids), Jon Hanson, and Ben "BJ Oihawk" Woyak. There were a couple other guys named Ben as well, who came along later. We released several albums, several 7"s, and toured a bunch. You can still find Modern Machines records, online and in stores. We made our mark, and had a blast doing it, too. A good starting point for the Mo-Macs would be our 12" on Recess Records, called Taco Blessing. I still play that song "Taillights.".. I've played in other bands, too - but if you want to hear about those, you'll have to ask someone else...